Louisiana AG sues Biden admin after Chinese migrant with ‘rare, aggressive and drug-resistant’ tuberculosis entered US

Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill filed an “emergency lawsuit” last week against several Harris-Biden administration officials after a Chinese migrant with a rare form of tuberculosis illegally entered the US.

The lawsuit aims to prevent federal immigration officials from releasing “potentially infected detainees” who came into contact with the Chinese national — who has a “rare, aggressive and drug-resistant form of tuberculosis that carries high mortality rates” — while they are in the country. the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“ICE has announced its intention to release potentially infected detainees from its two contract facilities (in Louisiana) – without obtaining medical clearance from the Louisiana Department of Health – if a warrant requires release,” the complaint said.

“According to information from ICE, once immigration-based detention authority expires, its hands will be tied,” the lawsuit continues, warning that migrants who may have contracted the disease will be released “to Louisiana’s streets, bus stations and airports .”

“This is completely wrong,” Murrill argues. “Per the Surgeon General’s standing orders, inmates must be held at the two facilities in question unless and until they are medically cleared by the Louisiana Department of Health.”

“That is an essential exercise of the sovereign prerogatives of the State, the exercise of its police powers and its obligation to protect public health within its borders,” she added, noting that the two facilities where the infected migrant was held were not are owned by IJS.

Murrill estimates that more than 200 detainees and “untold numbers of non-detainees” may have been exposed to the disease when the tuberculosis-infected migrant was flown by ICE from California to Louisiana and then transported between a detention center and a processing facility.

The Chinese migrant — a woman whose name is redacted in the lawsuit — illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in April and was apprehended by federal authorities in California in July, the complaint said.

“At least some of the approximately forty inmates who lived with (her) at the Richwood Correction Center in Monroe, La. arrived, have since been deported, transferred, relocated or released,” the lawsuit said.

The woman underwent a TB skin test upon her arrival in Richwood, which tested “very positive” on July 23.

A chest X-ray also showed signs of “active tuberculosis,” according to the complaint.

Despite apparently having the contagious disease, “ICE moved (her) “three days later” to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center (‘the Basile Facility’) in Basile, Louisiana,” where she was placed in the “general population ” – potentially exposing even more people to the pathogen.

“There were approximately 174 inmates at the Basile facility who may have been exposed to (the woman), approximately 60 of whom have been deported, transferred, relocated or released from the Basile facility,” the lawsuit said.

The woman tested positive again in September at the Basile facility and was hospitalized for “pre-extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis,” which Murrill notes is “highly resistant to both first- and second-line anti-TB drugs, difficult to treat and has a high mortality rate (between 34%-39%).”

Louisiana did not learn of the “imminent threat to public health” until October 9.

The attorney general’s lawsuit — filed Oct. 16 and unsealed Tuesday — names Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen and several others as defendants.

A U.S. District Court judge in Louisiana will hear arguments in the state’s attempt to keep migrants at the Richwood and Basile facility in ICE custody until they can be medically cleared on Oct. 31.

“Protecting our southern border is critical to the security of the United States,” Murrill said in a statement. “It is neither political nor unreasonable that Louisiana has repeatedly demanded that the Biden-Harris administration defend this nation.”

“Those who are not legally present should not be in the country – period,” she added. “Millions of illegal, undocumented aliens continue to cross the southern border – unidentified, untraced and untested for diseases that could threaten the lives of American citizens.”

“The federal government has endangered the health and safety of Louisiana and the American people. Despite this dereliction of duty by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary Mayorkas, Louisiana officials took immediate action to protect our people.”